Less than two weeks before the agreement was signed, Polish Solaris Bus and Coach had been named the global market champion at the first ever Emerging Europe Awards, beating other well established regional brands such as WizzAir, airBaltic, LPP Group and Avast.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are\u00a0very glad to\u00a0receive such a\u00a0prestigious award,\u201d said Dariusz Michalak, deputy-CEO of\u00a0Solaris Bus\u00a0& Coach, said while accepting the\u00a0prize. \u201cWe\u00a0are proud that Solaris is\u00a0a brand enjoying global recognition and\u00a0appreciation. The\u00a0Global Champion of\u00a0the Year trophy is\u00a0a wonderful confirmation of\u00a0that fact, placing us\u00a0in the\u00a0elite group of\u00a0top European enterprises, which includes such brands as\u00a0Amazon or\u00a0Siemens. This is\u00a0an exceptional year for\u00a0our company, which has\u00a0become the\u00a0European leader on\u00a0the market of\u00a0e-mobility and\u00a0low- and\u00a0zero-emission vehicles.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is no single recipe to become a global champion. In my opinion the most important factors to making a company successful are: very good leadership and very good team; discipline and consistency in the proceedings; understanding of your market and changes on it, appropriate responses to these changes; a bit of luck and of course a lot of hard work. I\u2019ve been working for Solaris for over two decades so every award for our company makes me personally happy and is a proof that hard work and perseverance pay off,\u201d Mr Michalak tells\u00a0Emerging Europe<\/em>.<\/p>\n \u201cThe experience of Solaris shows that having subsidiaries abroad may increase the chance for success on foreign markets. It is very useful, from a business point of view, to have insiders or local professionals who know and understand the characteristic features of a given country. What is more, in some areas there are often legal regulations that require your presence in another state. This also allows you to be closer to your clients. But most importantly success would be impossible if we failed to meet our customers\u2019 expectations which are of utmost importance to us,\u201d Mrs Olszewski tells\u00a0Emerging Europe<\/em>.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Family business<\/strong><\/p>\n Solaris Bus and Coach is a family business founded in the 1990s by Solange and Krzysztof Olszewski. Within 22 years, the company has grown from a few dozen to over 2300 employees.<\/p>\n Last year, 2017, was a record year, when not only did Solaris win the coveted prize of best bus of the year, but 70 per cent of the company\u2019s sales went to international markets. Solaris set a record in sales, selling 1397 vehicles, beating their previous record by 17 vehicles, set back in 2014. In addition to the number of vehicles sold the company generated revenue of over 1.85 billion zloty.\u00a0 Of the 1397 vehicles sold last year, 445 were destined for Poland and the remaining 962 (70 per cent) ended up in foreign markets, the majority of which were sold to Italy (225 vehicles), followed by Germany (200 vehicles).<\/p>\n \u201cEvery year since 2004 the majority of our sales has been exported,\u201d Solange Olszewski tells\u00a0Emerging Europe<\/em>. \u201cThe reason for that is that our domestic, Polish market is simply incapable of absorbing more vehicles. Our vehicles are currently present in 32 countries. The key markets for our products are in Europe \u2013 Germany, Italy, Israel, Austria, Czech Republic, France, Norway, and Lithuania \u2013 although we would always consider all markets equally important,\u201d she adds.<\/p>\n In 2017, apart from being named Emerging Europe\u2019s Global Market Champion and winning a number of other awards, Solaris\u2019 Urbino 12 electric bus was chosen the Bus of the Year 2017<\/p>\n \u201cThe title is the most prestigious you can be awarded with in our industry and this is the first time that it has been awarded to a producer, who competed with an electric bus\u2026. Also, as more and more of our electric buses are in service across Europe, the word spreads of their reliability and effectiveness. Battery-driven vehicles from Solaris have jointly covered over 5 million kilometres, which shows that the technology is no longer an uncertain novelty, but a serious alternative to a diesel bus,\u201d Mrs Olszewski says.<\/p>\n The future of public transport seems to be edging towards the use of electric and hybrid forms of transportation, especially in a world where we are worried about pollution and climate change.<\/p>\n \u201cSolaris is committed to fulfilling the demand of the market. The trend of public transport moving towards low or zero emission vehicles can be clearly observed for the past several years. To show it in figures, in 2014 there were orders for 156 electric buses in the EU. 2015 saw 248 orders, which meant a 58 per cent increase. Another breakthrough came in 2016 when 376 were ordered. Last year European operators ordered 1051 electric vehicles, which constitutes circa 10 per cent of an entire city bus market in Europe. Considering the sales and orders as per the end of 2017, Solaris, with 11 per cent of the market, was the second largest electric buses provider,\u201d notes Mrs Olszewski.<\/p>\n She confirms that despite the planned acquisition, the Solaris brand will not disappear from the market and the company\u2019s vehicles will still be manufactured in Poland.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/emerging-europe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/solange-1.png\")